Network path trace denotes a route a packet or other piece of data takes in a network between two network nodes. Conventional techniques used on the data path to capture network path trace information fall into two general categories. First, through the insertion of synthetic Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) Protocol Data Units (PDUs) into the network (e.g., LinkTrace, Internet Protocol (IP) TraceRoute, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) TraceRoute) and then each hop within the path responds back with intermediate hop device information. Techniques of this type are inferences since they do not actually capture the exact network trace path of the data packets being transported through the network. Second, through the insertion of intermediate hope device identification information in a header of the packet (e.g., IPv6 extension header in-band OAM). In essence, a linked list of device identification information is included in the header. As a consequence, the header gets undeterministically large and introduces processing performance restrictions. Disadvantageously, the first technique is only inferences of the actual network path (since they inject synthetic test PDUs into the data path to capture the network path, i.e., the data is not associated with each packet, but a test packet). The second technique results in an undeterministic explosion of the packet header since the device identifiers within the chain are essentially stored in the header of the packet.